The World Bank has pegged India’s energy efficiency market at Rs 1.6 lakh crore, four times the Rs 44,000 crore in 2010 against the backdrop of the success of the government’s UJALA scheme to distribute LED bulbs. “The success of UJALA has reinforced stakeholder confidence in the promise of DSM (demand side management) and re-established the utility DSM market potential from Rs 44,000 crore estimated in 2010 to Rs 1.6 lakh crore by considering the end use energy efficiency opportunities alone,” says the World Bank in its report to be unveiled tomorrow. The report titled ‘Utility scale DSM opportunities and business models in India’ further stated that the residential end use appliances, agriculture/irrigation pumping and municipal infrastructure are the top three DSM markets contributing to this potential.

According to the study, the renewed DSM market potential is envisaged to deliver 178 billion units of electrical energy savings per annum that roughly translates into 18-20 per cent of the current levels of all India annual electricity consumption and 150 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions reduction potential. Apart from this, demand response, solar photovoltaic (SPV) rooftop systems along with emerging smart grid technologies offer tremendous potential for utility DSM in India, it said. In another report to be unveiled tomorrow, the World Bank has placed Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala as top five states in terms of overall energy efficiency implementation readiness.

The report titled ‘India’s State Level Energy Efficiency Implementation Readiness’ says the index-based evaluation is not only able to benchmark the readiness of Indian states for energy efficiency implementation, but also reveals critical deficits or barriers in this respect. The study suggests adoption of achievable energy savings targets against the identified energy efficiency interventions and set a timeframe to pursue these targets. It calls upon the states to endeavour to bring sector-specific energy efficiency policies with definite goals and time-bound action plans.

This can be reinforced by introducing necessary legislation. It also recommended that State Electricity Regulatory Commissions should notify targets to utilities (in the case of thermal power generation) to achieve an optimal level of station heat rate (SHR) in power generation. This should be backed by an appropriate penalty in the case of non-compliance. It also made a case for notifying the urban local bodies (ULBs) to take energy efficiency measures such as undertaking investment grade energy audits, replacing old inefficient pumps with star-labelled pumpsets in their water supply networks, installing energy-efficient street lighting options like LED street lights. It also wants directions for state transport corporations to include vehicle fuel economy in their vehicle procurement criteria. The Center should formulate and notify vehicle fuel economy standards at the national level in the absence of which states will be ill-equipped to notify transport corporations about fuel economy norms, it said.